Shifting Guide

Neversummer 4 uses a custom shifting system that merges items into shifted forms in a more natural way. Unlike the bioware system, all bonuses from items and spells stack just the same as they would unshifted.

WARNING - If you are polymorphed in any way shape or form, DO NOT take a level until you go back to your true form. There are several possible bugs that have been associated with this. From characters being invalidated due to an incorrect amount of skill points, which means the server will autoboot that character. To RDD stat bonuses not being applied at all, and a whole lot in between. As you can see this can really hose up your character. So please, return to your normal shape prior to clicking the level up button.

Item Merging

Armor and Magical Items

• Magical Bonuses from all items except weapons merge into all forms.
• All magical bonuses stack just as they would before shifting.
• Treat all armor as robes when in shifted form. Only the magical armor AC bonus, damage reduction, and other magical bonuses will transfer, while the base AC, maximum dexterity, armor check penalties, and spell failure are removed.
• The base AC from shields will transfer in addition to the magical shield ac bonus. For example, a +6 tower shield will give +9 AC shifted, while a +6 large shield will give +8 AC. Armor check penalties and spell failure are also removed on shields when shifted.
• Attack bonuses and damage bonuses on gloves and gauntlets will not transfer to any shifted form, but all other bonuses on gloves and gauntlets will still transfer as normal.
• Because of a bug, items granting universal save bonuses will not stack with items granting bonuses to specific saves (fort, will, or reflex). Instead, the universal save will over-ride the specific save, granting only the universal save bonus, even if it is lower than the specific save bonus. Because of this, it generally best not to mix items with universal save bonuses and specific save bonuses.

Weapons

• Weapon bonuses do not merge into any form that uses natural attacks. This includes dragons, animals, elementals (but not elder elementals recived at Druid level 20.), all polymorph self shapes, and many shapechange shapes. All forms that use natural attacks have built in enhancement and damage bonuses.
• Melee Weapon bonuses do merge with forms that use melee weapons instead of natural attacks. This includes elder elementals, undead shapes, outsider shapes, construct shapes, and all shapes from the Shifter class.
• Ranged Weapon bonuses do not merge on any shape.
• Base (non-magical) weapon stats do not merge. Only magical bonuses such as enhancement bonus, bonus damage (physical and elemental), on-hit effects, keen, etc. will merge.
• For the purpose of critical range and base weapon damage, the critical range and base damage is the same as the shape's wielded weapon.
• A character does not need to wield the same weapon type as the intended shape's weapon for the magical bonuses to merge. (IE, magical bonuses of a shortsword will merge with a drider form's mace, but the drider will still have the mace's base damage and crit range and be considered as wielding a mace for the purpose of feats)
• Occasionally, a weapon's enhancement bonus will appear on a character sheet as bonus damage physical damage while shifted. This damage will in fact be added to the character's physical damage. This occurs any time the character merges a weapon which does not have bonus physical damage dice of the same type as the shifted form's weapon. In cases where the shifted form's weapon does two damage types, the character will not receive the bonus damage only when the weapon merged has bonus physical damage dice in both types of the shifted form's weapon.

Other Considerations

• Bonus Spell Slots given from items, either directly with or indirectly through ability increases, will be briefly removed on shifting. This will cause all spells slotted in those slots to be removed.
• The Holy Avenger property on The Holy Avenger does not function properly in shifted form if the character does not have paladin levels. The Holy Avenger property will be removed permanently after shifting if the character's UMD drops below the required UMD to wield the weapon due to temporary item removal as the character shifts.
• You can equip an item that grants you a bonus proficiency, then equip a different item that requires said proficiency, and then unequip the item that grants that item's proficiency, and then you'll still be wearing the item that you no longer have the proficiency for, at which point you are able to shift with the item, causing the item that you shouldn't have been able to shift with to normally merge into your shifted form.
• Bonus feats from non-weapons will not merge into your shifted form, but bonus feats from weapons, such as Disarm(whip) will.

Weapon Focuses

• Weapon Focus, Epic Weapon Focus, Improved Critical, and all Weapon Master bonuses do work on all forms that wield a standard weapon. In order to get the bonuses form the feats, the focus weapon must be the same weapon as the shifted form uses. A character can not get bonuses from weapon focuses in any way if the shifted form uses a weapon that is different from a character's focus weapon.
• A character does not need to wield their focus weapon while unshifted to get bonuses from Weapon Focus, Epic Weapon Focus and Improved Critical after shifting.
• Epic Prowess works with all forms, including those with natural weapons (unarmed forms).
• Improved Critical works with all forms. To get improved critical on forms with natural weapons (unarmed forms), a character must have Improved Critical: Unarmed.
• Weapon Focus and Epic Weapon Focus do not work on forms with natural weapons (unarmed forms), even if a character focuses in unarmed strikes.
• Stunning Fist can be used by all forms with natural weapons (unarmed forms).
• Unarmed forms with natural weapons do not need to take Improved Unarmed Strike to avoid attacks of opprotunity as natural weapons never provoke attacks of opportunity.
• All forms receive Weapon Finesse for free, so acquiring this feat is not necessary in order to take advantage of dexterity based forms.

Merging of Base (Non-Magical) Ability Scores

• All ability scores replaced by a shifted form (generally strength, dexterity, and constitution) are not affected in any way by a character's ability score before shifting. Racial bonuses and bonuses from books will never improve a shifted form's stats. For example, an epic dire tiger will have 43 base strength regardless of the character's strength score before shifting. The form's ability scores can still be increased with magical items and buffs.
• All racial ability bonuses granted by bioware races will be removed after shifting. For example, a Shield Dwarf will no longer have +2 constitution or -2 charisma after shifting. (However, the constitution will often be replaced by the shifted form.)
• All racial ability bonuses granted by NS4 races will be retained after shifting, minus the bioware bonuses. For example, a Gold Dwarf will lose 2 constitution and gain 2 charisma after shifting, negating the bioware bonuses, but retain the -2 dexterity and +2 charisma granted by NS4 on character creation. The end result is -2 dexterity and +2 charisma total after shifting. (However, the dexterity will often be replaced by the shifted form.)
• Ability bonuses granted by Tomes, Manuals, and Red Dragon Disciple ability increases will transfer to shifted form except for when the ability score is replaced by the shifted ability score.

Merging of Other Bonuses

• All active buffs merge into shifted form. These include buffs cast from spells, feats and items (including racial tokens) before shifting.
• Weapons buffs merge into all forms with weapons, but the weapon must be buffed before shifting.
• Skin-applied bonuses do not merge into shifted form. This most notably includes job bonuses, some NS4 applied racial bonuses (see below), and ns4 applied ranger bonuses.
• Many Racial Bonuses do merge into shifted form. These include all Bioware bonuses (except size bonuses) and all ns4 applied save bonuses, skill bonuses, bonus feats, and spell resistance.
• Some Racial Bonuses will not merge into shifted form. These include passive buffs such as the Svirfneblin deflection ac bonus and elemental immunities and resists.
• A character's size bonus will become that of the shifted form when shifted.
• A character's race will become that of the shifted form; However, outsider races can still be turned after shifting, even if their new form is not an outsider.

Special Class Considerations

• A Monk's wisdom bonus to AC does not merge into shifted form. A Monk will still receive 1 ac per 5 monk levels per usual.
• Because all Armor Check penalties are removed after shifting, a character with Monk levels will receive the monk speed bonus and 1 ac per 5 monk levels after shifting, even if they were using armor and shield before shifting.
• A character with Monk levels will get to take advantage of the monk's unarmed base attack progression while shapeshifted into an unarmed shape.
• Ranger class bonuses granted by NS4 will be removed in shifted form due to being passively applied to the character's skin.
• A Pale Master's ac bonus will revert to +2 ac per increment of ac increase after shifting. Due to the Mystral Ascendancy's class restrictions, a Pale Master can only take advantage of this by using Polymorph Self or Shapechange.

Item and Ability Use

• No items other than Potions can be used after shifting.
• Racial Tokens cannot be used after shifting, though their buffs will be retained if used before shifting.
• Spells can not be cast after shifting with the exception of Epic Spells. All Epic Spells can be cast while shifted.
• Class and Feat Abilities can be used after shifting. This includes Bard Song, Curse Song, Divine Might, Divine Shield, Shadow Evade, Shadow Daze, Hide in Plain Sight, Barbarian Rage, Lay on Hands, Blinding Speed, many Harper Scout and Purple Dragon Knight abilities, and many more. Epic Spells fall in this category.
• Shifted form bonus abilities that are also standard NWN spells (for example, the Death Slaad's monstrous regeneration) can be auto-quickened, auto-silenced, and auto-stilled, even the the effects of the spell are different from that of a normal caster. Additionally, if the character receives the same spell from a casting class, the player can quick-slot a metamagiced version of the spell before shifting and then cast the metamagiced version of the shifter spell when shifted; however, Maximize Spell and Empower Spell will not have any effect on the spell.